Unsure about RegCleaner 4.3

[Guest]

I have downloaded a freeware RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio.

Has this RegCleaner been tested or is it obsolete for Windows XP

Home Edition SP2 operating systems?

Also, on this RegCleaner under : Options>Registry Cleanup>Method>

Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you
Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of
everything?

Please excuse my ignorance about alot of this. As a Newuser I am just trying to

learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about
systems,folders.etc.

My system: Acer 2450 laptop

Windows Explorer 7
Windows XP Home Edition SP2

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Home Edition SP2 operating systems?

Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup
for you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out
a whole lot of everything?
learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about
systems,folders.etc.
Windows Explorer 7
Windows XP Home Edition SP2

If you are not comfortable in the registry already - I recommend NOT using a
cleaner tool....

 

[Guest]

Thanks Shenan for the advice.

Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn

more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts?

 

[HeyBub]

Home Edition SP2 operating systems?

Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for
you Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a
whole lot of everything?
learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about
systems,folders.etc.
Windows Explorer 7
Windows XP Home Edition SP2

The almost universal advice is to NOT use a registry cleaner at all, for any
reason.

Virtually nothing good can come from using a registry cleaner while the
number of bad things that can happen are too many to list.

 

[Daave]

Is there any sites out there somewhere I can go to and learn
more about Registries, what they do and the do's and don'ts?

First off, you should use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) to
backup the registry:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

This way, if you ever screw up your registry, you can easily undo the
changes.

To learn about the registry and regedit, see:

"Windows Registry Tutorial":
http://www.akadia.com/services/windows_registry_tutorial.html

"What is the Registry?":
http://www.pctools.com/guides/article/id/1/

"Description of the Microsoft Windows registry":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986

Regarding RegCleaner 4.3, this is the only registry cleaner I would ever
recommend. Out of the box, it's in the manual mode, and I would keep it
there. Use it sparingly because cleaning orphaned registry settings is
seldom necessary.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Home Edition SP2 operating systems?

Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you
Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of
everything?
learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about
systems,folders.etc.
Windows Explorer 7
Windows XP Home Edition SP2

Why do you think you'd ever need to clean your registry? What
specific *problems* are you actually experiencing (not some program's
bogus listing of imaginary problems) that you think can be fixed by
using a registry cleaner?

If you do have a problem that is rooted in the registry, it would
be far better to simply edit (after backing up, of course) only the
specific key(s) and/or value(s) that are causing the problem. After
all, why use a chainsaw when a scalpel will do the job? Additionally,
the manually changing of one or two registry entries is far less likely
to have the dire consequences of allowing an automated product to make
multiple changes simultaneously. The only thing needed to safely clean
your registry is knowledge and Regedit.exe.

The registry contains all of the operating system's "knowledge" of
the computer's hardware devices, installed software, the location of the
device drivers, and the computer's configuration. A misstep in the
registry can have severe consequences. One should not even turning
loose a poorly understood automated "cleaner," unless he is fully
confident that he knows *exactly* what is going to happen as a result of
each and every change.

Having repeatedly seen the results of inexperienced people using
automated registry "cleaners," I can only advise all but the most
experienced computer technicians (and/or hobbyists) to avoid them all.
Experience has shown me that such tools simply are not safe in the hands
of the inexperienced user. If you lack the knowledge and experience to
maintain your registry by yourself, then you also lack the knowledge and
experience to safely configure and use any automated registry cleaner,
no matter how safe they claim to be.

More importantly, no one has ever demonstrated that the use of an
automated registry cleaner, particularly by an untrained, inexperienced
computer user, does any real good, whatsoever. There's certainly been
no empirical evidence offered to demonstrate that the use of such
products to "clean" WinXP's registry improves a computer's performance
or stability. Given the potential for harm, it's just not worth the risk.

Granted, most registry "cleaners" won't cause problems each and
every time they're used, but the potential for harm is always there.
And, since no registry "cleaner" has ever been demonstrated to do any
good (think of them like treating the flu with chicken soup - there's no
real medicinal value, but it sometimes provides a warming placebo
effect), I always tell people that the risks far out-weigh the
non-existent benefits.

I will concede that a good registry *scanning* tool, in the hands
of an experienced and knowledgeable technician or hobbyist can be a
useful time-saving diagnostic tool, as long as it's not allowed to make
any changes automatically. But I really don't think that there are any
registry cleaners that are truly safe for the general public to use.
Experience has proven just the opposite: such tools simply are not safe
in the hands of the inexperienced user.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Bruce Chambers]

First off, you should use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) to
backup the registry:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

This way, if you ever screw up your registry, you can easily undo the
changes.

Provided those "changes" didn't render the computer unbootable, as is
often the case, that is.....





--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Daave]

Provided those "changes" didn't render the computer unbootable, as is
often the case, that is.....

True, in that case, it might not be as easy. But at least if you back up
the registry properly, you should be able to undo any damage:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

What to do if Windows does not boot anymore?
--------------------------------------------

If Windows refuses to boot normally it can be for a variety of
reasons, not the least of which is that the registry is damaged, or
you installed a program or driver which is somewhat incompatible with
the system or buggy, in which case restoring a registry backup from a
point where everything was running smoothly should also help.

The first thing to try is to reboot and press the F8 key immediately
before the first Windows screen appears, then select the "Last Known
Good" option from the menu and see if Windows boots up with this
option. If it does, you're all set.

If it does not, reboot again with F8, and select the option "Safe
Mode". If Windows boots up in safe mode, you can restore a registry
backup just as you would in normal mode, as described above.

If safe mode also fails, read on...



Restoring the registry with ERDNT - Emergency Scenario I
--------------------------------------------------------

Situation: Windows fails to boot up in normal and safe mode, but you
have a DOS boot disk or another (working) operating system installed
on your PC which is supported by the ERDNT restoration program, and
from which you have full access to the drive(s) containing the corrupt
Windows installation and the registry backup.

Boot up to the working OS, and open the folder containing the registry
backup you want to restore.

If the drive letters are different to as they were in the Windows
where you created the registry backup, you need to edit the ERDNT.INF
file now to reflect the new drive letters, before trying to restore
the registry backup. For example, if the drive with the corrupt
Windows installation is now available as D: instead of C:, then you
would change all C:\... references in the INF file to D:\... . Editing
the file can be done in Windows with the Notepad program, and in DOS
with the EDIT command.

Now run the ERDNT.EXE file to start the restoration program. Select
which registry components to restore (just the system registry will do
in most cases), then start restoration. When the process is complete,
reboot the computer and check if the other Windows installation is
repaired now.



Restoring the registry with ERDNT - Emergency Scenario II
---------------------------------------------------------

Situation: Windows fails to boot up in normal and safe mode, and you
have no other working operating system installed on your PC.

The following two rescue methods require that your PC is configured so
that it can boot from CD. See your BIOS documentation for more
information.

1. Bart's PE Builder
Use another computer with Internet access and CD burning capabilities
to download this free program from the Internet (do a Google search
for it), which will create a bootable Windows CD with full access to
all drives (including NTFS). Boot from this CD, open the File
Management Utility and follow the directions in "Emergency Scenario I"
to run ERDNT and restore the registry.

2. The Windows Recovery Console (Windows 2000 and higher)
Note that you can use this method only if you saved the registry
backup inside the Windows folder, and that using this procedure only
the system registry is restored. This should however get you back into
Windows, from where you can run the ERDNT program to restore user
registries, if necessary.
- Boot your system from the Windows 2000/2003/XP CD-ROM.
- At the welcome screen, press "R" (Windows 2000: "R" then "C").
- Type in the number of the Windows installation you want to repair
(usually 1), then press ENTER.
- Type in the Administrator password (leave blank if you are unsure
what it is) and press ENTER.
- At the command prompt type
cd erdnt
or whatever you named your restore folder, then press ENTER.
- If you enabled automatic registry backup on system boot during ERUNT
installation and want to restore one of these backups, type
cd autobackup <ENTER>
- If you created subfolders for different registry backups (for
example, with the different creation dates), type
dir <ENTER>
to see a list of available folders, then type
cd foldername <ENTER>
where foldername is the name of a folder listed by the dir command,
to open that folder.
- Now type
batch erdnt.con <ENTER>
to restore the system registry from that folder.
- Type
exit <ENTER>
and remove the CD from the CD-ROM drive. The system will now reboot
with the restored registry.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Home Edition SP2 operating systems?

Automatic or Manual. Does this mean it will just do a cleanup for you
Automatically and is it safe to do so; or will it wipe-out a whole lot of
everything?
learn all this exe, dll, and all the abbreviated things about
systems,folders.etc.

I strongly suggest you avoid using any registry cleaning program.
Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the
registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many
people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try to
convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt
you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

 

[Guest]

RegCleaner 4.3 has not been used and has now been deleted from
my computer as per the advice from the MVP's.

However, I still have a downloaded game,(WWII Tank Commander from

Merscom) which will not delete to the recycle bin. This game unfortunately
came with-out an uninstall. I contacted Merscon and they told me to
install
RegCleaner to delete the registry keys for the game.

I guess I'm stuck with it, but I have learned one valuable lesson. Don't

download something unless you are sure you can ununstall it if you do not
need it any more.